Internet-enabled mobile devices (e.g., laptop computers, mobile phones, personal navigation devices, etc.) allow users to perform web searches anywhere that a data connection is available. Users of these devices are therefore able to perform local search queries to locate places such as businesses and other points-of-interest. For example, a user may use an Internet-enabled mobile device to submit a local search query “Italian restaurant in San Francisco” to a search engine to locate an Italian restaurant in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the search results returned by the search engine, although relevant to the search terms in the local search query, may be ranked in a manner that is not desirable to the user. For example, the top search result may be an Italian restaurant that is on one side of San Francisco, whereas the user is on the other side of San Francisco. If the user's mode of transportation is by foot, the top search result may not be practical. Furthermore, search results are typically ranked based on the number of other relevant web pages that link to the web pages corresponding to the search results (e.g., an importance metric). Search results presently do not account for the popularity of places (as opposed to graphical tree position and linkage). Thus, it is highly desirable to provide a system and method for ranking search results of local search queries without the aforementioned problems.